Abstract:

The paper aims to study the impact of selenium on the nutrient content of chestnut seed, improve chestnut nutritional value, and find out an efficient way of selenium fertilizer application to cultivating selenium-enriched chestnut. The bio-organic fertilizer with selenium content of 138 mg/kg was used in the study. Five treatment groups were set according to the amount of fertilizer of 0.0（CK）, 1.5, 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 kg per tree. For all sample chestnut trees with fruits, we detected the selenium content in soil, leaves and chestnut seeds and analyzed the main components of chestnut to study the correlation between the selenium content in fertilizer and the content of selenium and other nutrients in chestnut. The results showed that the selenium content in soil and leaves increased with the increase of selenium fertilizer level and planting years. Selenium could enter chestnut through metabolism, and promote the transfer of selenium to chestnut with the accumulation of selenium in soil and leaves. The selenium content of chestnut under selenium fertilizer application was significantly higher than that of the control group, and the uptake of selenium also promoted the absorption of other nutrients. In the fourth year, the content of selenium in chestnut under treatment 3 was the highest, reaching 0.539 mg/kg, and the content of soluble sugar, protein and starch was 9.673, 4.817 and 40.707 g/100g, respectively, which were significantly higher than those of the other treatments. In conclusion, the proper use of fertilizer with selenium can improve the quality and additional value of chestnut, which will be a healthy way to supplement selenium for human being.

Key words: selenium, Chinese chestnut, cultivation, protein, starch